Community, Paintballs & Star Wars! Posted By Mike on May 15, 2011
If you're a fan of the NBC Thursday night comedy Community, then you know that the show isn't shy with its pop culture references. Always done with an interesting slant, the show, which just completed its second season, includes various references through one-liners and gestures along with full-blown theme episodes. Lots of shows do this nowadays, but Community always seems to do so in a manner that feels original.
But let's backtrack and give those who are unfamiliar with the show an idea of what they've been missing. Here's a summary from the show's official site to give you a little context:
"From Dan Harmon ("The Sarah Silverman Program") and Emmy Award winners Joe and Anthony Russo ("Arrested Development") comes "Community," a smart comedy series about a band of misfits who attend Greendale Community College. At the center of the group is Jeff Winger (Joel McHale, "The Soup"), a fast-talking lawyer whose degree has been revoked. With some help from his fellow classmates, Winger forms a study group that eventually learns more about themselves than their course work.
Also among the series stars who comprise the group are comedy legend Chevy Chase ("Chuck") as Pierce, a man whose life experience has brought him infinite wisdom; Gillian Jacobs ("The Book of Daniel") as Britta, the 20-something dropout with something to prove; Yvette Nicole Brown ("Rules of Engagement") as Shirley, a sassy middle-aged divorcée; Danny Pudi ("Greek") as Abed, a pop culture junkie; Alison Brie ("Mad Men") as Annie, a high-strung perfectionist; Donald Glover ("30 Rock") as Troy, a former high school football star trying to find his way, and Ken Jeong ("The Hangover") as Señor Chang."
OK, so back to the whole pop culture reference thing. In season 1 of Community, the pop culture themed episodes came to a culmination in an episode titled "Modern Warfare." The spring semester was drawing to a close and Dean Pelton thought it would be a great idea to have a paintball contest on the Greendale Community College campus with the winner receiving priority registration for the fall. Things quickly dissovle into a sort of post-apocalyptic paintball warzone with nods to Rambo, The Warriors, Predator, and of course, Die Hard. The episode was not only hilarious but was just excellently executed. For those of us who have become fast fans of the show, it's generally considered the most hallowed episode. (You know, like the Mandalore fizzy drink episode for TCW fans :)
The creators of Community took a risk by going back to the paintball well for their Season 2 finale two-parter. The first of which ("A Fistful of Painballs") took this year's paintball battle into a western theme with an unbelievable new prize of $100,000. Again, good stuff and the creators managed to keep the paintball angle fresh.
Star Wars was brought forth in part two of the finale, "For a Few Paintballs More." As I had noted previously, Community isn't shy with the pop culture references and in my humble opinion, the show was due for some Star Wars. A recurring adjective I use to describe Community is fresh and the way they showed their love to our favorite franchise was subtle and in your face all at the same time. It wasn't an episode where everything screamed Star Wars. In fact, the episode was a bit front loaded with the more obvious nods and then was carried through by pop-culture junky, Abed. He took on the role of Han Solo as the painball war shifted from a Greendale battle royal for a cash prize to a battle for survival against City College. Our Greendale students form a rebellion to fight back and Abed never sheds his character.
Here are the FULL SPOILER cliff notes with some of the highlights.
- The City College invaders are dressed in all white as a nod to Stormtroopers.
- At the beginning of the episode the City College troopers bust through a door and start shooting down a smokey hallway with their leader following. Incidentally, he's a giant ice cream cone.
- (1:24) Troy and Abed hear the dastardly plans of City College and run to get away. As they start shooting, one of the troopers says: "There's one. After them."
- (1:31) From there we get truncated Community / Star Wars opening crawl.
- Following the opening, we find the study group and other recognizable faces from around campus forming the rebellion. Troy and Abed are addressing the group:
Troy:"...if we're going to fight them, we have to form a school-wide alliance of rebels."
Abed:"In other words it seems we've left the western motife and are entering more of a Star Wars scenario."
The group groans.
Abed:"I know. I wish it had happened sooner too."
- During this planning meeting, which is very ROTJ-like, Abed slips into the character of Han Solo.
- (6:30) There's a great scene where Abed and Annie are in a closet trying to get extra paint ammo. Annie hurts her hand and Abed proceeds to call her "Your Worship" and tries to play out the scene from TESB where Han and Leia are getting a little romantic.
- Annie gradually starts falling for Abed (as Han) and slips into the role of Princess Leia. At approximately 8:40 Annie and Abed are waiting to ambush some enemy troops...
Annie:"Hey. Thanks for sticking up for me back there. This group gets so tangled in each other's feelings, you're kind of a hero for standing outside of it."
Abed:"Yeah, well heroes are great but I'll take a blaster every time."
Annie:"Anyway,just wanted to let you know I don't think you're immature. I think you're great...for a no good, laser-faced, Jabba scoundrel."
Abed:"You're good kid. Don't get cocky."
The fact that Annie tried playing along with the Star Wars-theme and got it wrong was much more funny and sweet than if she had stated an actual quote. These are the little subtleties that made this episode so great. But, let's continue...
- (12:20) Troy goes charging down a hallway and stops short when he comes across a squad of troopers ala Han in ANH. Sadly, Troy doesn't get the chance to run away but the ensuing execution is fantastic.
- (13:00) As the enemy is closing in, Abed and Annie are resigned to their fates...
Annie: "Looks like this is it. Will you still be Han solo after we die?"
Abed:"Afraid not doll. Once I'm gone, I'm gone."
Annie:"Oh. Ok." (rather diaspointed)
They then kiss as paint starts to rain down from the sprinkler systems. Seeing as they're now covered in paint, Annie and Abed are "dead." With that abed say's "cool" and walks away. The Star Wars references essentially end as Abed drops his Han solo character. (With the exception of one mention of Han at the end of the episode)
While you could tell that there would be some Star Wars in this episode through its promo, Community managed to keep the extent of the Star Wars love a secret. That's just another factor that made the episode so great. There was no big build up. It wasn't over the top and it was very much in line with the way Community pays tribute to pop culture in general.
If you have yet to give the show a chance, it's well worth your time. Season 1 takes a couple episodes to get going but once Community finds it's voice, it's consistently great from there on out. You can catch up on episodes at HULU or at NBC.com.
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